Mister Miracle #1 (DC): Tom King and Mitch Gerads crafted the best comic book of last year with The Sheriff of Babylon, a shattering, close-up deconstruction of the everyday tragedies created by the fog of war. King also created last year’s best superhero comic in The Vision.In that book, he used the creative latitude afforded in penning a B-lister to orchestrate a tale about a family of androids, living in suburbia, that incorporated bits of Mary Shelley, Philip K. Dick and Leave It To Beaver. The resultant tale explored, amongst other trivialities, death, prejudice, and what it means to be human. Throughout, King established a pitch-perfect tone that was absurd, poetic and tragic, frequently all at once. One hopes that in working with another character not-well known outside of comic circles, King and Gerads will produce something similarly profound.

Mister Miracle #1

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #23 (Marvel): If you already aren’t reading this comic book about a computer-science grad student with the powers of a squirrel (who is soon to be featured in a gosh-darn TV show), you’re missing out on the best superhero book that isn’t Black Hammer or Silver Surfer. Ryan North continues to delight with buoyant, laugh-out-loud writing that manages to feel upbeat and empowering without a trace of didactic, self-congratulatory posturing (hear that Saga?). If you still need an excuse to jump on this book, the current story allows the inimitable Mr. North to return to his first love: Dinosaurs! The child-like exuberance North obviously feels for the subject is matched by Erica Henderson’s energetic, Ditko-inflected art. The joy in this book is infectious.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #23

Clue #3 (IDW): Yes, I can feel your eye-roll: a book that’s an obvious corporate tie-in to a friggin’ board game? Has Battleship taught me nothing?! But my childhood affection for said game, as well as the cult-favorite movie it inspired (itself a corporate tie-in) impelled me to give it a shot (Or a candlestick. Whatever.). Happily, like the movie, Paul Allor’s story benefits from a wacky cast, clever pacing and an off kilter sense of humor. Nelson Daniel’s art contributes some fittingly comedic touches, especially in terms of staging and page layout. And Clue features that hallowed comic book trope, the mordant, omniscient narrator/host (think the Crypt-Keeper except with impeccable manners and in a butler’s suit). Except it seems he’s not so omniscient after all. Hmm….

Scarlet Witch #9 (Marvel): I&N Demand I’m happy to report that James Robinson’s tucked his junk away for his intriguing turn on Scarlet Witch. This book’s been monthly magic! OK, so we celebrated Robinson’s The Shade (DC)–feels like forever ago–and celehated just about everything else since then save for his full-of-hot Airboy, which was a balls-out blast to the past that sold me on Robinson’s page-bound prickish self, particularly as he hit some notes that recalled David Duchovny’s cock(un)sure Hank Moody in the hilariously depressing Californication. What a Wanda-full world he’s created here–with the help a different artist for each effort in order to create an interconnected series of singular experiences, which reminds of Ales Kot’s groundbreaking-and-then-standing-over-the-broken-pieces-and-gloating Zero (Image). Issue #8 found artist Tula Lotay delivering an appropriately hypnotic performance–one that helped to sell the all-important intimacy and to deliver the Ringmasterful twist. This month: Joëlle Jones assumes art duties. Something tells me the lady’s gonna kill it.

The Vision #10 (Marvel): I&N Demand Later, this very reader, on this very blog, would write a review of The Vision and its creators that no one has written before–and it’d go viral, leaving dancing grooms and blustery moguls dancing and blustering in the datadust. A blurb would be bounced about the Twitterverse enough to convince some eager editor to snatch it and put it in print somewhere Marvelous. Then and only then would the world come to realize how integral Tom King’s vision and his voice have been to the evolution of the medium during this Vibranium Age for comics. For now: on the strength of #9, and King and Walta’s playing us like a Wakandian piano, before diving into #10, don’t forget your flak jacket, your helmet, and, for obvious reasons, your safety glasses. This could get ugly very quickly.

Black Eyed Kids #5 (Aftershock)

Cirque American: Girl Over Paris #2 (Jet City Comics)

Johnny Red #8 (Titan)

Providence #10 (Avatar): I&N Demand Word wizard Alan Moore’s painstakingly finger-banging my brain. I offer it up to him again. There’s nothing like it on the shelf. There can’t be anything like it on the shelf.